Tag Archives: Topic: Taxation

lliance Defending Freedom sent a letter to members of the California Legislature Friday to explain the significant legal and policy problems of a proposed bill designed to punish non-profit youth organizations like the Boy Scouts of America

NCPA Policy Digest: Everything the government does should be justified by law, including the levying and spending of taxes and fees. Nearly all states have adopted a meaningful definition of what a “tax” is.

Religion Clause Blog: A petition for certiorari (full text) was filed Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court in Big Sky Colony, Inc. v. Montana Department of Labor and Industry.

Religion Clause Blog: The New York Times reported earlier this week on the unusual recent decision by the Internal Revenue Service to revoke its 2003 “church plan” designation for the employee retirement plan of Hospital Center of Orange.

Reuters: Members of the Pennsylvania legislature are pushing back against a state Supreme Court decision that made it more difficult for hospitals to prove they are nonprofit organizations deserving of tax-exempt status.

Catherine Glenn Foster at LifeNews: Planned Parenthood is as secretive as it is deadly. In other words, it not only ends the lives of hundreds of thousands of unborn children each year but also conceals records revealing pertinent aspects of its operation costs, important details regarding “policies and services available to minors,” and it provides different numbers on salary information based on whether it is filling out state or federal paperwork. (also at Townhall)

Investor’s Business Daily: Americans are migrating from less-free liberal states to more-free conservative states, where they are doing better economically, according to a new study published Thursday by the George Mason University’s Mercatus Center . . . The freest state overall, the researchers concluded, was North Dakota, followed by South Dakota, Tennessee, New Hampshire and Oklahoma. The least free state by far was New York, followed by California, New Jersey, Hawaii and Rhode Island
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Authur B. Laffer and Stephen Moore at WSJ: In short, red states of the South and other areas of the country are moving forward with pro-growth tax reform, while California and the blue states of the Northeast are doubling down on Obamanomics and European progressivism. Who will come out on top? Our money is on the red states and those wisely following their lead.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The Goliath that Pittsburgh faces is UPMC, a $10 billion medical enterprise defined by superlatives — largest health care provider in the region, biggest property owner in Allegheny County. It is considered a tax-exempt nonprofit, which means it gets a $20 million tax break from the city every year because it pays taxes on only a portion of its properties and no payroll preparation tax.

Kansas City Star: The Kansas House approved legislation Wednesday to prevent abortion providers from claiming tax breaks or assisting with public school sex education classes, and Senate leaders promised their chamber will consider it quickly. The vote in the Republican-dominated House was 92-31.

The Hill: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that while he believes in the “historic and religious definition of marriage,” he believes the federal tax code should be reformed in a way to make it “more neutral” and not exclude same-sex couples.

Reuters: Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, the lesbian couple at the center of a major gay rights case set to go before the Supreme Court this month, were in many ways a typical New York power couple.

Erik Stanley at Speak Up Movement: America is in the midst of a debate on the definition of marriage, the foundation for a stable society and a stable home.  Americans desperately need to hear from their pastors what God says about marriage, the institution He created. This year, our country faces one of the most pressing issues in our history as efforts are underway to radically redefine the institution of marriage, the relationship that God established long ago in the Garden of Eden even before the Fall of mankind. . . . With all this in mind, Pulpit Freedom Sunday 2013 will be a Sunday focused on marriage.

Seattle Times: Struggling to respond to a state Supreme Court order to put more money into education, some state Senate Republicans on Wednesday came up with a way to save a bit of money: reduce the size of the court. Senate Bill 5867, introduced Wednesday morning, would reduce the court from nine members to five (the minimum allowed in the state constitution).

TribLive.com: Allegheny County nonprofits that own tax-exempt properties will likely receive one or more of 2,800 letters this week asking them to prove to the Office of Property Assessments that they deserve the tax break.

Religion Clause Blog: In Thompson v. Commissioner, (USTC, March 4, 2013), the U.S. Tax Court faced the question of the extent to which a taxpayer entering an installment agreement for the payment of back taxes should be allowed to continue to tithe to the Mormon Church.

Bloomberg: Consumer spending in the U.S. rose in January even as incomes dropped by the most in 20 years, showing households were weathering the payroll-tax increase by socking away less money in the bank.

The video is here.

Washington Times: A group of 72 lawmakers have revived an effort to ask the government’s watchdog agency to scrutinize taxpayer dollars going to Planned Parenthood and five other organizations who provide family-planning services.

CNSNews: Conservatives are blasting a Democratic California lawmaker for introducing a bill to strip the Boy Scouts in California of their tax–exempt status, solely because Scout membership policy doesn’t allow homosexual scoutmasters or scouts.

Market Watch: For two people earning $400,000 or more each annually, their tax bill could increase by more than $30,000 after getting hitched, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center based in Washington. “You’re better off not being married in a lot of cases,” says Roberton Williams, an economist with the Tax Policy Center, which just updated its marriage penalty calculator to reflect the recent tax changes. See the calculator here.

KIVITV.com: A tax break sought by an anti-abortion pregnancy center in Boise cleared the House on a near party-line vote. The measure to benefit Stanton Health Care by giving such clinics a sales tax exemption passed Tuesday on a 58-12 vote.

National Review: Tonight, he called for an end to the financial penalties often facing low-income couples who marry. Specifically, Obama said, “we’ll work to strengthen families by removing the financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples.” Concretely, this could be done in two ways . . .

The Olympian: A tax break sought by an anti-abortion pregnancy center in Boise cleared the House on a near party-line vote.

Religion Clause Blog reports.

San Francisco Chronicle: Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill Thursday that would have made New Jersey the third state to legalize gambling over the Internet, but said he would sign it if it had a 10-year trial period and a higher tax rate on casinos.

Erik Stanley on Wallbuilders Live to discuss the Pulpit Freedom Initiative. | MP3 10:46 mins

American Federation for Children: The ESA program, which was enacted in 2011, allows parents to receive 90 percent of the per-pupil expenditure to use on a variety of educational tools for their children, including tuition and fees, textbooks, educational therapies, and tutoring. There are currently more than 300 students enrolled in the program, which serves students with special needs.

NCPA Policy Digest: A new Reason-Rupe poll reveals Americans’ attitudes about federal spending and the gun debate, among other issues.
The poll finds that 79 percent of Americans believe that government spending has reduced their quality of life (QoL) or made no impact on their quality of life since 1992. Forty percent say QoL has been reduced, 39 percent say government spending has had no impact and just 17 percent feel that federal spending has improved their lives.

CNSNews: In new, final regulations issued Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said that parents must pay a federal fine under Obamacare if their children or dependent spouses are uninsured for any part of the year.

Christian Institute: Nick Clegg has confirmed that he opposes the introduction of a tax break for married couples. David Cameron promised a transferrable tax allowance worth £150 a year, where one spouse stays at home, in the Conservative Party manifesto. But the Liberal Democrats are against the move.

Concord Monitor: Supporters of New Hampshire’s new education tax credit program got a big boost yesterday when a key senator came out against a repeal bill being considered by the Democratic-controlled House, signaling the legislation could face a deadlock in the Senate.

RealTruth.org: Partly as a result of this action, ministers across America risked their status as tax-exempt charities and tackled politics from the pulpit: “About 1,600 pastors across the country violated a 58-year-old ban on political endorsements by churches in October by explicitly backing political candidates in their Sunday sermons, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom of Scottsdale, Ariz., a conservative Christian legal organization behind a campaign called Pulpit Freedom Sunday” (NBC News).

CNSNews: In a final regulation issued Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assumed that under Obamacare the cheapest health insurance plan available in 2016 for a family will cost $20,000 for the year.

Greg Baylor at Speak Up Movement: On January 8, 2013, plaintiffs represented by the ACLU,Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and theNew Hampshire Civil Liberties Union launched an assault on educational freedom in New Hampshire.

Missouri Family Policy Council: Pro-life state legislators are making a strong push this session to win passage of bills that would revive a state tax credit program which benefits pregnancy resource centers.

Bangor Daily News: The church is represented by attorney Joel Oster from the Alliance Defending Freedom organization of Leawood, Kan. Oster said Monday that the church is pleased with the outcome but will need to do its due diligence to see if it can form the nonprofit charitable organization to allow for the land to be exempt.

Catholic World Report: Guidelines for nonprofits are often misunderstood. And they are sometimes misrepresented by those seeking to quiet churches.

Forbes: Much of civilization is based on the principle that children are best socialized in a home by two biological parents in a committed relationship. As a result, couples have always been encouraged to marry and remain married. And yet the federal tax code takes a decidedly anti-marriage stance.

NCPA Policy Digest: When a couple’s income is largely unequal, the second earner’s additional income will not typically be large enough to raise the couple into a higher tax bracket. But for two-earner couples whose wages are similar, the relatively equal wage incomes will raise the marginal tax rate on the second salary by a substantial amount.

Erik Stanley at Speak Up Movement: This lawsuit is really about two things. First, it is about generating publicity for Freedom From Religion Foundation. A quick lawsuit, even if it gets dismissed at a later point, can earn some headlines. But secondly, this lawsuit is about fostering FFRF’s radical agenda. FFRF, a group of radical separationist atheists, envisions a future where the tax code is used against churches and pastors to punish them for speaking out on issues of candidates and elections.

AP: Charities and nonprofit organizations worry that new limits on tax deductions for high earners will hurt donations just as charitable giving is starting to rebound from the depths of the recession.

Wall Street Journal: If you retire single and childless, that means you’re living off the labor of other people’s children. Why shouldn’t you get a smaller benefit check than those who accepted the personal and financial burdens of raising those workers?

Edwin Ekene at allAfrica.com: Actually, it was a debate between Erik Stanley, the head of the Pulpit Initiative for Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance of Christian attorneys in the United States, and Rev. Barry W. Lynn, the Executive Director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. The title of the debate, which was published in the Los Angeles Times of September 23, 2008, was, “Why Don’t Churches Pay Taxes?”

God Discussion: At Alliance Defending Freedom, we see the dark legal clouds gathering across our nation, threatening your religious freedom. That’s why we created SpeakUpFreedom.org. . .

Erik Stanley at LifeNews: Well, ninety days have come and gone since over 1,500 pastors participated in Pulpit Freedom Sunday on October 7,2012. And the IRS has not taken any action against any of the pastors who participated. Actually, the title of this blog post could have been “Four years and Counting” because Alliance Defending Freedom first launched Pulpit Freedom Sunday in 2008.

ACLU Press Release: A statewide tuition tax-credit program that would divert taxpayer funds to private religious schools in violation of the state constitution was challenged in a New Hampshire court today by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of New Hampshire and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Wall Street Journal: During the negotiations, the White House won a concession from Republicans to allow phaseouts for personal exemptions and limitations on itemized deductions, starting at an income of $250,000 for individuals and $300,000 for joint filers.

Religion Clause Blog: Under the new law, the total of itemized deductions that may be taken by individuals earning over $250,000 and married couples earning over $300,000 will be reduced by 3% of the amount their adjusted gross income exceeds the $250,000 or $300,000 threshold until 80% of the itemized deductions are lost.

Religion Clause Blog: In Big Sky Colony, Inc. v. Montana Department of Labor and Industry, (MT Sup. Ct., Dec. 31, 2012), the Montana Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision upheld against constitutional attack amendments to the state’s workers compensation law that brings Hutterite Colonies within the definition of those covered when their members perform agricultural, manufacturing or construction services even though members do not receive wages. Instead Hutterites receive food, shelter, clothing and medical care from the Colony.

AP: Both sides lamented their failure to reach a significant deficit-cutting agreement. But neither much mentioned another omission: The immediate expiration of a two-year, 2-percentage-point cut in the Social Security payroll tax.

JTA.org: A building housing a synagogue and Jewish day school in Worcester, a city in central Massachusetts, has been seized by the Internal Revenue Service.

Religion Clause Blog (links to docs): This month, two separate lawsuits were filed claiming that the Internal Revenue Service unconstitutionally favors religious organizations and churches over other non-profit organizations.

Wall Street Journal: In other words, a household with two people earning a little under €1 million would not be subject to the tax, while an individual making even a dollar more than €1 million would have to pay. So while it is fair to take 75% of what someone earns, it isn’t fair unless the law confiscates 75% from all rich households equally.

Mercury News: “Since 1954 and the Johnson Amendment, the IRS has set itself up as the pulpit police,” said Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for Alliance, which has about 2,200 lawyers assisting with the initiative. Stanley said his group supports the free-speech rights of pastors on both sides of the political aisle. “Pulpit Freedom Sunday is really all about protecting a pastor’s right to speak freely from the pulpit and not be intimidated or censored by the government for doing so,” he said. His group at some point wants to generate a “test case” in hopes of having the Johnson Amendment declared unconstitutional. Alliance may indeed have a case.

The Hill: “Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference,” the downtrodden House Speaker said at a hastily called closed-door meeting Thursday night to tell fellow House Republicans that he didn’t have to votes to pass his “Plan B” effort to avoid the “fiscal cliff.”

Telegraph: The Republican leadership was forced to abandon a vote on its alternative plan to avoid the “fiscal cliff” on Thursday night after its members rebelled at the prospect of raising taxes for millionaires.

Washington Post: There’s an asterisk there, though: It’s not entirely clear whether Boehner will be the speaker of the House a month from today. The vote to elect the next speaker is on Jan. 3. To win, you need an absolute majority of the House, not a plurality. Even a hopeless conservative challenge that attracts only a handful of Republican votes could deny Boehner the speakership until a consensus candidate emerged. Tonight’s vote makes that challenge more likely.

The Hill: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) vowed on Thursday that Republican leaders would have the votes to pass Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) “Plan B” tax bill over Democratic and conservative opposition.

AP: Socialist President Francois Hollande’s budget aims to cut (EURO)30 billion ($40 billion), with two-thirds of that coming in tax hikes, including a 75 percent levy on incomes earned over (EURO)1 million. But it was the increase in taxes on profits from investments that raised the most hackles in France . . .

Washington Times: Maryland Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot said Wednesday that the state will allow same-sex couples to file joint state-level income tax returns for tax year 2013, one day after a spokeswoman told The Washington Times that current federal tax policy prohibits such a move.

The Independent: The Vatican has received a generous early Christmas present from European Union chiefs with the announcement that illegal tax exemption from 2006 to 2011, which saved the Catholic Church billions of euros, will not have to be paid back.

Christian Institute: More than 50 MPs say a Plymouth Brethren group is being “singled out” for unfair treatment by the Charity Commission in a long running case about charitable status. The Commission has refused to register the group because its Holy Communion services are for members only.

Kathleen Parker at the Washington Post: “Marriage is not merely a private arrangement; it is also a complex social institution. Marriage fosters small cooperative unions — also known as stable families — that enable children to thrive, shore up communities, and help family members to succeed during good times and to weather the bad times. Researchers are finding that the disappearance of marriage in Middle America is tracking with the disappearance of the middle class in the same communities, a change that strikes at the very heart of the American Dream.”

Washington Post: The White House and the nation’s most prominent charities are embroiled in a tense, behind-the-scenes debate over President Obama’s push to scale back the nearly century-old tax deduction on donations that the charities say is crucial for their financial health.

Religion Clause Blog: In Boardman v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, (ED CA, Dec. 6, 2012), a California federal district court dismissed free exercise claims by a Quaker peace activist who challenged provisions of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (26 USC Sec. 6330(g)) that curtail the administrative appeals process for “frivolous” taxpayer claims.

The Hill: Groups that rely heavily on charitable giving will descend on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to defend the tax deduction for charities — a target in talks to reduce the deficit. Hundreds of representatives from churches, museums, arts and educational groups, and other nonprofits will argue any change to the tax deduction will curtail giving and harm those who receive services.

Cafardi, Nicholas P., Saving the Preachers: The Tax Code’s Prohibition on Church Electioneering (2012). Duquesne University Law Review, Vol. 50, p. 503, 2012; Duquesne University School of Law Research Paper No. 2012-16. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2181557

Weekly Standard: Don’t the American people have a right to see these taxes and where they will fall? Shouldn’t the President of the United States, the only person who represents everybody in the country, lay out his plan, or must that remain a secret too? Will it just be revealed to us on the eve of Christmas or eve of the new calendar year? We will be asked to vote for it, to ratify it like lemmings, I suppose.”

Philly.com: City Councilman James Kenney is to introduce legislation Thursday that would give a tax credit to employers who provide health-care benefits to same-sex partners, saying his bill would make Philadelphia, already a popular city for gays and lesbians to live, even more so.

Human Events: The leader of Americans for Tax Reform told Human Events that Republicans should be ashamed to be part of the Democratic media campaign to raise taxes. “They should be embarrassed,” said Grover G. Norquist, the founder and president of the Washington-based ATR.

CNSNews: “I made a pledge to the people of Kentucky that I’m not raising taxes. I took a pledge. I signed a statement, an oath that I wouldn’t raise taxes, and I’m going to adhere to it,” Sen. Paul told Fox New’s Greta Van Susteren Monday night

Wall Street Journal: One of the more amazing post-election spectacles is the media celebration of Republicans who say they’re willing to repudiate their pledge against raising taxes. So the same folks who like to denounce politicians because they can’t be trusted are now praising politicians who openly admit they can’t be trusted.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley will be available for media interviews following his oral argument Tuesday at the Arizona Court of Appeals in defense of a church facing an illegally assessed property tax bill that would force it to shut down.

David Skeel at the Wall Street Journal: Consider it a refreshing postelection case of strange bedfellows. For four years, a Christian group called the Alliance Defending Freedom has tried to get courts to review a law that prohibits churches from electioneering. The alliance’s strategy was to goad the IRS into enforcing the law, but the IRS wouldn’t bite. Last week, however, a secular group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation may have forced the IRS’s hand by suing it for this same failure to enforce.